There Will No Longer Be War Anymore

Toward the end of one calendar year and the beginning of the next one there is typically a mass-influx of prophets and prophetic people who seek the Lord for what He is saying about that next year. Some people also go off of the Jewish Calendar citing things like “Israel is God’s timepiece.” Now, while I won’t go into why I believe much of the Body has an extremely flawed and frankly unbiblical view of Israel in this article, what I will say is that whether we pick the Hebraic Calendar or the Julian Calendar system, the trend is still “It’s a new year so let’s see what God wants to say.” I used to do this for myself personally and for friends and family and have fallen out of the habit, but I don’t have anything specifically against seeking the Lord in set times and patterns. What I do have a problem with is the significant number of people who are declaring “War in 2024.” Why?  What we should be declaring  is “There will no longer be war anymore.”

Now, we could argue that by sheer quantity of people prophesying such things that it must mean God is saying it, but I would argue two things: First, its plainly obvious and doesn’t require prophets to tell us this particular detail. Second, even if God is warning of war, why is not the next part of the word “so we need to decree Heaven’s peace in its place”?  I’m a teacher not a prophet so I won’t spend a ton of time in this article judging the words themselves—I’ll let a prophet somewhere do that. What I will do is teach a little about the heart and nature of God and His plans in the earth so we can decide what our response should be to these kinds of words. Let’s break down these two points I am stating in a little more detail.



Impending War is Obvious

It doesn’t take a prophet, or a prophetic person, or even some kind of historian or economist or someone in similar positions to observe that a war has been planned. The military-industrial complex, the money-laundering that happens through war, the penchant for the CIA to intentionally destabilize governments and then have the US military swoop in and “fix” it all while certain players take the opportunity to loot that country’s resources—all of this is a consistent pattern. It really doesn’t take a prophet to see what certain leaders have been pushing toward and leading the nation and the world toward in recent years. I can see this quite plainly and not only do I not watch the news, I haven’t had any angelic visitations tell me about it either. Its just that obvious.

I recently saw a prophetic dream that someone released on social media about a certain situation, and then read some of the comments. One of the comments in particular was rich, memorable, and touches on the point I am making here. The commenter said, “I am old enough to remember when you had to have the dream *before* the event happened for it to be considered prophetic.” The obvious point here is that if you get “revelation” after the fact then how revelatory is it really? And while yes, God can and does explain and clarify things to people in revelation and it doesn’t negate whether that person heard from God, it does speak to the point that we need to expect a bit more from our prophetic revelation. God doesn’t need to give us special prophecies about things that are incredibly obvious. In fact, when we prophesy the obvious it plays to something called “confirmation bias” where we look at the things around us and use circumstances to confirm what we already believe. Since the plan to start more wars is obvious, all a prophetic word is going to do is push on the “confirmation bias” button and suddenly everyone is in agreement with the word and because we already believe it’s true we judge that prophetic word as accurate, only further trenching ourselves in that belief and co-creating it.  Can we please stop helping the enemy by coming into agreement with death, loss, and destruction and co-creating it with them?

What We Govern, We Get

To my second point, here is why all of that is really bad: While prophets and prophetic people are busy declaring obvious wars, I don’t see many of them telling us to decree and command for God’s peace and His divine government to come replace it. And that’s a HUGE problem. The Bible tells us some key things about God’s nature as well as the age we are living in. One of them is in Isaiah 9:6-7a which says:

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”

Friends, this is a generally accepted prophesy about Jesus, but let’s take a second and look at what it actually says. It speaks to His nature and plans, which include His nature as the Prince of Peace, but it goes on to say that “of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.” So right away we can identify that the plan of God is for peace to increase, not war, but it gets even better. Verse 6 tells us that “the government will be upon His shoulders.” To review simple anatomy, the head sits on the shoulders. The shoulders and the rest of the body are below the head. Since Jesus is the head, and we are the Body, then this means that the government isn’t resting exclusively with Jesus and we have to sit here and wait like idiots for Jesus to appear in the clouds and rescue us. Our job is to take responsibility to govern. So what are we governing? If we can decree a thing and see it established (Job 22:28), then why are we decreeing and establishing wars and not establishing the government of God in peace?

Jesus has literally given us authority to govern what happens in the earth.  The Bible says that when everything has been placed under his feet (again, under the entire Body of Christ) then and only then will He come to turn it over to the Father. Even if someone disagrees with the hints of eschatology in this article, none of that changes our mission and our mandate—the increase of His government and peace. We seem to be really bloodthirsty these days, and it is sad. If we keep coming into agreement with war, death, loss, destruction, poverty, and pain then that is exactly what will happen and it will occur because we, the Body of Christ, have created a platform for it, a blueprint, a place for it to land in the earth.

There is a prophecy in Isaiah 2 where it says that “in the last days” that people will go to what sounds like a physical Zion and be taught by God.  As a result of this we will beat our swords into ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks, and nations will no longer fight or train for war. And because of how it is written, people relegate this to a far off someday, when in reality that entire passage can (and should be) taken somewhat less literally than we normally do.

First, if we want to go with Last Days theology for a minute, Peter the Apostle declared we were there a couple thousand years ago, which means we probably should expect this scripture to apply to us here and now. Second, there are very few actual blacksmiths any longer and we don’t use swords and spears as common methods of warfare anymore, nor do we farm the same way. A comparatively small portion of the world’s agriculture is grown using a beast of burden and a plow.  This means this passage might not be entirely literal in nature and war ending isn’t necessarily going to look like literally turning spears into pruning hooks.  Rather, it embodies a concept that communicates we will each individually no longer engage in war. Finally, the last verse of that particular prophecy gets rather overlooked. Isaiah 2:5 says, “Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” The entire point of this prophetic word is to give a glimpse of what the future will look like, and then the prophet directly instructs the hearers of the word to start living it now.

Its really quite simple. We, the Body of Christ, have been given authority and power to govern the earth. We just don’t govern the way earthly governments do because our Kingdom is both not from here and also supersedes earthly governments in authority quite significantly. Swords and spears are the weapons of individuals.  When we stop fighting one another with weapons and start coming into agreement with one another for peace, peace happens.  So we need to embody this prophecy now in our hearts, minds, prayers, and in words of agreement instead of waiting for a someday-event while co-creating more violence, anger, and bloodshed with our God-given authority.  It is time we start governing over these prophetic words of war through our own decrees of peace, prosperity, and declare an end to violence, secrecy, corruption, murder, fear, and more. It is time we began to decree the domain of God manifesting in the earth to protect all those who are helpless in war-torn areas. It is our job to govern over every demonic spirit who seeks to cause anger, envy, strife, covetousness, and more both on an individual and international level. It is our job to release the Godly powers, principalities, thrones, mights, and dominions and spiritual forces in heavenly places to go accomplish all that Jesus has planned and to help establish His righteousness, justice, and peace in the earth.

Our mandate is “Make Jesus’s Kingdom and His will manifest on earth as it already is now in heaven.” So let’s stop lending our agreement to prophecies of war, death, and destruction and be about establishing His government and peace, shall we?

Training a Son of Our Father To Heal the Sick

One of the things we did in Peru 2023 with Overseas Missions was hold medical clinics, which, being a nurse, I play a role in.  The clinic process usually involves seeing patients, assessing their needs, giving medications where possible, then sending the problem list (written on a piece of paper with their name) to the prayer team to pray for the problems.  The results are pretty fantastic—almost everyone who goes through the clinic and gets prayer gets healed.  Because we are in a non-English-speaking country, however, that means we have to use translators because most of the team doesn’t speak the local language which, on this trip, was Spanish.  Our leader made some arrangements with locals he is in relationship with, and one of the translators, Jonathan, was the son of a local Iquitos pastor.

He did a fabulous job translating for us the entire time we were in Peru.  And although Jonathan was a pastor’s son, he wasn’t accustomed to praying for the sick (to be fair, I am the son of an Episcopal priest and I wasn’t raised to pray for the sick either).  So, while most of what the nurses in the clinic did was identify and treat physical problems and send people to the prayer team, I had a few times I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to have us pray—so mostly I had Jonathan do it.  He was uncomfortable at first (he told me, but it was pretty obvious even if he hadn’t said anything), but he did great and was willing to push himself out of his comfort zone.  It probably helped a bit that for everyone he prayed for, their pain gradually left as well, so he could see the results of his prayers in real-time.

Now, when it comes to praying for the sick, I have a bit of a mental algorithm I go through in my head while talking to the Holy Spirit and just trying to be generally aware to spiritually discern what God is saying and doing, so I made sure to tell Jonathan my process, and I’ll share that here as well.

First, when it comes to heal the sick I begin with a prayer of command.  Something simple like, “All pain, leave now in the name of Jesus.”  You see, in Matthew 28:18-19 Jesus told his disciples that He had received all authority in heaven and earth, then delegated the disciples to go and exercise that authority on His behalf.  So, when praying for the sick the first thing I do is engage my authority and release power to heal, and expect it to be done in faith. Then, where possible, I have the person test it out and see if they can tell a difference.

After praying, one of three things will happen:  it will get better, get worse, or stay the same (or they may not be able to tell, so in that case I assume it has remained the same).

  1. If it gets worse, it’s a demon, so then I cast out demons.
  2. If it gets better but not all-better then God is actively healing them in that moment and I pray again.
  3. If it stays the same then I pray again because even Jesus prayed twice (Mark 8:22-25).
  4. And if it gets all-better then they’re healed. Give them a hug and let them know God loves them.

 

The rest of the prayer session tends to continue in a similar manner, with me praying then identifying what is happening, then adjusting from there.  If we hit blockages where nothing is happening after praying multiple times or if they have been gradually getting healed and it stops, then I cast out demons.  Once I have done that if it still plateaus, then I am talking to the Holy Spirit to see if there are emotional issues or curses or something else that are interfering with what we are praying, deal with that issue, then ideally go back to my prayer process again until they are fully healed.

Since Jonathan eventually plans to be a doctor anyway, I taught him this algorithm to him since it’s largely based on how I problem-solve as a nurse anyway, and figured it would be a good fit for him.  Then, as we prayed for people, I coached him through the process, asking him what he saw, what he thought we should do next, etc.  Finally, in keeping with the prayer of power and authority, I continued to remind him that he is a son of the Most High God and that Sons of the Kingdom don’t ask for creation to obey us—we command it to.

We practiced this healing prayer process both during the clinics infrequently with patients and also at a few healing prayer services we did while in Iquitos.  While praying together, Jonathan and I saw God heal blindness, deafness, and a number of other less-problematic conditions, but the last patient we saw on the last clinic day was a pretty special circumstance that beat out all of those.

On the final day of the clinic, we spoke to a young woman who’s main complaint was knee pain.  Seeing that she was the last patient, I had Jonathan pray for her, and the pain left instantly.  After praying for her knee and giving her antiparasitics for her family, vitamins, and some other medications, I observed that her ankle looked really strange, something she hadn’t mentioned anything about.  It looked at first glance like she had broken it sometime in the past and it had healed very poorly, as it was swollen and misshapen.  Upon asking her, it turned out that she had an ankle tumor.  I mean, I would have led with that, but people can be funny.

Now, while I inspected her ankle I noticed something that was impossible to miss because of how glaringly obvious it was.  This young woman’s ankle and the tumor on it were absolutely covered in gold dust!  We had seen other patients in the clinics and everyone whose skin we inspected for a skin problem had supernatural gold dust on their skin problem, but on this woman’s ankle it was thicker and just more somehow.  I showed Jonathan and then showed the woman—and explained it was a miracle from heaven (milagro de cielo) and a sign that God wanted to heal her body.  With that, we began to pray.

As you can probably guess, I had Jonathan pray for her.  I began by having her rate her pain and move her ankle so we could observe how much range of motion she had (another way to evaluate change when healing the sick).  Jonathan liked to pray long, flowery prayers with a bunch of “Father Gods” thrown in there so I told him to pray a super short prayer this time.  I had him say “Pain, leave in the name of Jesus.” He prayed, and some of the pain left.  After praying she said it felt like something was “grabbing her ankle,” so I had him command “Demon get out and all swelling go in the name of Jesus.”  He did, the demon left, the rest of the pain went, and as we continued to take turns praying over the next few minutes, the swelling visibly reduced to about half the size!  Her pain was gone, and her range of motion in the ankle had improved significantly.

We had to close up right after this as it was getting dark, or I would have continued to pray more because God was actively healing this woman’s body and removing the tumor and its effects!  And while I preferred to continue praying, I could also trust that God would continue the work that He had started to begin with.  After all, covering her tumor in gold dust wasn’t my idea—it was His.  This precious woman was crying by the time we were done because she could tell that God was touching her body.  It was so beautiful to see her moved by God’s gift to her, and I simply extended my faith in trust that God would finish the work over the next few days.

That miracle was pretty awesome, but almost as awesome to me was helping train up another Son of our Father to heal the sick and destroy works of darkness.  After all, if in a week’s time Jonathan saw the sick healed, blindness and deafness healed, and he even saw a tumor shrink at his prayer of command, what else is possible when partnering as a Son with our Heavenly Father?  Nothing is impossible with God!

The Spiritual Significance of a Ring

In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), there is a parable that loads of sermon messages get preached on with some regularity, at least in the United States.  In fact, I can’t even count the number of sermons I have heard on this particular passage myself—the subject of the Prodigal Son.  Most sermon messages focus on prodigal children in general but tend to focus in more specifically on part with the son’s return in the parable as retold by Luke.  However, I had a unique encounter in the spirit one day that made this parable not only come alive to me, but it was the first of a series of occurrences involving a particular object found in that story:  a ring.

Now, for those who aren’t familiar with the parable I suggest you read it, but what I am referring to is a moment where a father bestows upon his formerly-wayward son a robe, a pair of sandals, and a ring.  I had an encounter once that relates to this story.  I was sitting on the floor in my apartment praying and worshiping one afternoon when I perceived in the spirit that an angel had placed a clothing box in front of me on the carpet—the flat, rectangular kind that department stores gift-wrap clothing in.  Not able to perceive what was inside the box, I decided to physically act out what I was doing (because sometimes physical action helps engage your will and your spirit to perform spiritual actions), and physically made the motions of removing the lid from the box.

All well and good, but once I did that I still saw nothing inside the box.  Now, that doesn’t mean it was empty—simply that I couldn’t see inside what was in front of me in the spirit.  As a further act of faith, I reached into the box with both hands and pulled out whatever was inside.  As I did so, I was able to see that I was holding a big, white shaggy robe.  Having no clue why this robe had been delivered to me, and given how far I had gotten already, I did the next sensible thing and went through the motions of putting it on.  The moment I did this, I suddenly became aware that in the spirit, sandals had appeared on my feet and a ring with a golden band and a cut green stone had appeared on my right index finger.  All three have symbolic importance, but I want us to focus in on the ring today.

The Lord had been gradually teaching me at this point how to see in the spirit more clearly, as well as about spiritual objects, which is a discussion for another time, but the ring fascinated me.  In fact, it was the first of a series of spiritual rings that I was given over time, one of which the Lord gave me as a sign so I would know the wife He had prepared for me—I just didn’t discover that until a few years after I received that particular blue-sapphire ring.  If we want to understand the importance of spiritual rings, it helps to get a good understanding of what the Bible tells us about them.

Rings are not actually mentioned very frequently in scripture, but there are 7 passages in the Bible that refer to the use of rings in relation to authority (Genesis 41:42, Esther 3:10, Esther 8:8, Isaiah 3:21, Jeremiah 22:24, Haggai 2:23, and Luke 15:22), but I want us to read a few of them that I think shed some light in the significance of spiritual rings that the Lord may give us from time to time.

Rings in general had a variety of uses, but in this context rings were most often used as a sign or seal of authority.  In Genesis 41:42, Pharaoh gave Joseph his signet ring when he made Joseph the second of command over all of Egypt, signifying the level of authority Pharaoh had bestowed upon the man.  In Haggai 2:23, the word of the Lord prophesied that Zerubbabel would become “like a signet ring” in context of becoming one with ruling authority.  The passage in Luke 15 referred to the wayward son being restored to a position of huios sonship, a Greek word used to denote that one was a mature adult son—one who could operate properly in authority over the household and its affairs.  While rings in the Bible have mostly been used in context of kings and rulers, regardless of who is using a signet ring, it denotes authority given to one to make decisions and have them carried out by others.

Another passage that is important to read in this regard is Esther 8:8 which says, “But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”  This passage is referring specifically to Persian law, which stated that when something was signed into law by the king it could not be revoked, but it shows us something of the importance of a king’s ring—that it permits us to make laws and rules and to command others.

Now the Bible calls all of us kings, and tells us that Jesus is the King of kings—a prime ruler who governs over all of us, those who are being brought into maturity as the sons of God to rule and reign with Him.  If we are to rule as kings, then we must understand the importance of authority we have been given to legislate, make decrees, and to command others, whether on earth or in the heavens.  While we do not have to have a spiritual experience where we receive a ring in order to extend and engage our spiritual authority, it is still important to note that at times, when the Father is promoting us into a new position in the spirit, He may give us an encounter where we receive a ring in keeping with the established meaning and purpose it holds as found in scripture.

I suspect that many people have had encounters they never realized the significance of—a vision where one appeared, or even a dream where they received a gift of a ring.  Because rings are so closely tied with marriage in Western Culture, it can be difficult at times to understand the significance they hold in regards to authority and stepping into new positions in the Kingdom.  Sometimes people may even give us a physical gift of jewelry!  All of these are different ways that God can communicate with us to show us the promotions He is giving us because we have been faithful with what He has provided us in the past.  Enjoy the upgrade!

When We Release Power, Creation Responds!

One of the things that is easy to forget as we go through our physical-focused three-dimensional lives is that we are sons and daughters of Heaven who have been given authority to transform all creation in the cosmos.  I had a simple situation at work the other night that reminded me of this, and just how important it is that we come into a greater understanding of our true identity in Christ.  I had just started the night shift (I’m temporarily working nights after being on days for a while) with my coworker Eddie and as I bid the offgoing shift farewell I said “Have a great night!”  Eddie turned to me and said “I felt that.  It felt like you were talking to me.”  That’s because when we release power, creation responds.

Curious, isn’t it?  At face value all I did was say “goodbye,” but in truth what I did was decree well-being upon the night for those I was speaking to.  It was a simple statement too, but my coworker felt the power that was released when I said those words, and he felt that power enter him as well.  I hadn’t done some super-spiritual proclamation over the day shift to let them know that I was being spiritual and releasing virtue upon them to shift their night.  And I didn’t have to.  All I had to do was say the words and the universe around me shifted in accordance with what I spoke—enough so that someone else felt the change.

Is there something super-amazing about Michael that makes this different for him than everyone else?  No—I’m the same as you—a guy who is gradually deepening his understand of who God designed me to be long before the universe was even spoken into existence.  And yet, one thing that becomes increasingly clear to me as I go on this journey of growth and transformation is that we get to choose what kind of reality we will experience.  Not only that, but we also get to decree that reality and life to others and when we do we release power to perform our words as the sons and daughters of God.  Creation responds to our words.  Why?  Because we have become the divine offspring of the Word of God who spoke creation into both being and function.  Remember what Jesus said to the disciples before He ascended to heaven?

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. . .” Matthew 28:18-20a

Did you catch that?  Jesus acknowledged that all authority in both heaven and earth had been delegated to Him, and he subsequently delegated it to the disciples.  But he didn’t stop there.  Jesus instructed them to go make more disciples and then to teach all of them to do the same things Jesus had taught the original disciples.  You and I are meant to do the same things Jesus both did and taught the early Church to do, and we have been given the same authority that Jesus gave them.

One of the biggest barriers to living in this truth is actually our thought-habits.  We get into patterns of saying and doing things that are not consistent with what Jesus taught us, and we don’t realize or remember that it all begins with what we think about—because what we think has an impact on what we speak, and what we speak has an impact on the world around us.

The more we understand and recognize that *every* word we say influences creation, the more we will choose our words carefully and wisely, and intentionally build speech habits that release life and transform creation in healthy ways.  Jesus addressed this point when speaking to the Pharisees and said some very interesting things that we’re going to take a look at:

 

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:34-38

 

Jesus castigated the group for the things they spoke, and explained something fascinating—that we will have to give an explanation for every empty word we have spoken, and that our words will either acquit or condemn us.  The phrase every “empty word” literally says every argos rhēma, which can be translated a variety of ways.  Some translations say “every idle word” but the underlying concept is that every word that is lazy, idle, or accomplishes nothing will have to be explained.  Think about that.  It isn’t just that we have to pay attention to whether we are speaking life or death with our words (which we do need to do) but that we need to make sure our words accomplish something.  That sets the bar of expectation to a whole new level.

Jesus understood that the words He spoke had power to transform reality—and He regularly performed miracles and healed the sick from that position of a son of the Most High God who walked in that revelation and authority.  He taught the disciples to do the same, and has given us this same charge—to transform all creation through the intentional (and not idle) use of our words because He has given us the authority in both heaven and earth to do so.  The encouragement in all of this though, is that when we release power, creation responds!  As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, all of this came out of a simple encounter at work where I decreed over coworkers how their night would go, and in fact I do that at work regularly.  I intentionally tell people when I am coming on and going off shift how their shift is going to become, and I have developed this habit precisely because I know that when I speak, I get to influence my workplace.  And the only difference between my workplace and my home, or my workplace and yours, or anywhere else, is simply who is transforming creation through their powerful words.  So let’s remember to be intentional with our words to manifest heaven on earth!

Receiving a Spirit of Adoption and Divorcing the Other Fathers

I want to do some teaching today that touches on the importance of receiving the Spirit of Adoption—aka the Holy Spirit.  It definitely is sort of an “identity in Christ” message, but it isn’t one that is really taught. In fact, I have only ever heard one person teach on this subject, and it was a few weeks after I wrote this.  As such, I would be very surprised if most readers have encountered some of the things we’re going to look at today—and a lot of it is straight from well-known scriptures too. The reason I say this is that I expect this will be a significant theological challenge to some.  Before going further, I get that this topic is not likely to win me any Popular Theology awards in Christian circles, but I think it is important we take a deeper look at why our identity in Christ matters, and to do that we have to take a long, hard look at what I broadly refer to as the Other Fathers.  I’m going to be breaking a lot of theological boxes today, so I highly recommend that anything you have questions about that you take time to mull over, pray about, and really think about the broader implications instead of just rejecting things that don’t fit the “normal Christian teaching” box.  Besides, if you’re reading this, I would hope that you know by now that I don’t do a lot of “normal Christian teaching” here anyway.  And if you are new, welcome! . . . and buckle your seatbelt!  Fair warning, this is much longer than most of my articles but the subject matter doesn’t lend itself well to breaking it into multiple posts, so here it is all at once.

The subject of the Other Fathers came up for me about a year and a half ago.  I was chatting with a close friend on the phone and a guest at her house briefly joined in the conversation and mentioned something about “the Other Fathers” in reference to some inner healing stuff we were discussing.  I had the opportunity to ask her a bit more about it at a later date, and the things she told me not only made a ton of sense, but I could see where it all fits in with the scriptures, and not only that, but the Holy Spirit has brought me more understanding on the subject since.  I think there is a lot of potential benefit for the Body of Christ from an inner healing and deliverance perspective, so let’s first begin by looking at where we see the Other Fathers in scripture, see how the subject ties in to other aspects of our lives and spirituality as a whole, and what we can do about them.

First, let’s take a look at the Lord’s Prayer—more specifically, how it begins.  It goes, “Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is your name.”  Interesting, isn’t it?  Jesus began the prayer by identifying which Father he was referring to, and specified the holy one in heaven.  If there is only one Father, why did he bother specifying it in the first place?  That’s like saying you are speaking about “that white man standing over there” when there is literally only one person over there to begin with.  Adding that he is white, male, and standing are unnecessary details considering he’s the only one present.  If there is only one father possible, I don’t think Jesus would have specified which one He meant when he was teaching His disciples to pray.  But there’s more.

John 8 is very fascinating chapter where Jesus is talking to the Pharisees.  The entire chapter is important for context, and there are multiple more verses in that chapter than I will quote here that support my point, but for brevity’s sake I will only quote some of the more obvious parts in the middle.  The context of this passage is that Jesus is teaching in the temple courts, and the Pharisees are trying to entrap him.  The portion we will cover here begins with Jesus speaking, and the italics are my emphasis on the subject of Fathers.  It says:

“I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

“Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  (John 8:38-44)

 

If we read this chapter closely, we see that both Jesus and the Pharisees understand the concept of spiritual fathers, because that is what is largely being discussed here.  Jesus starts by differentiating between what He has seen in God the Father’s presence, and then tells the Pharisees that they are following the directions of a different father.  The Pharisees retort that Abraham, who is a servant of God, is their father, to which Jesus reveals that their actions are something Abraham never would have done in a million years, and thus invalidates their claim.  He goes a step further to affirm a second time that they have a different father.  They angrily deny that they are illegitimate children of another father and then Jesus a third time challenges them on this.  He makes an if/then statement say if God was their father (which He isn’t) then they would love him (which they don’t).  Jesus then really drives the knife home as he states “You belong to your father, the devil . . . (v44a).  Jesus wasn’t just being insulting here though.  He stated three times that the Pharisees had a different spiritual father than Jesus did, and he even specified the third time that the devil really and truly was their father.  The last part of the verse, Jesus states again that the devil is the father of lies.

The thing is that Jesus wasn’t using figurative language, but rather describing a very real spiritual reality.  God the Father in Heaven is unfortunately not the only spiritual father out there.  In fact, most cultures have some sort of spiritual father figures—and most people have heard of at least some of them.  Some of the ones that come more immediately to mind are Zeus, Odin, Ra, Osiris, Horus, Cronus, Jupiter, and Anu, but there are many more.  You will observe that these are all the names of mythical gods, but that isn’t a coincidence.  These beings, and most other mythological gods and other beings, are based in reality.  Yes, they do exist, and more than just in the minds of men.  Many of these beings fall under the category of “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” mentioned in Ephesians 6:12.  I wish they didn’t exist, as it would make things a whole lot easier, but they do.  Genesis 6 speaks of how cosmic heavenly beings, the “sons of God”, mated with the daughters of men and birthed the Nephilim, of which Nimrod was the greatest.  So how does this relate to us and spiritual fathers?

Well, consider what it says in Romans 8:15, that “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”  We have all heard this verse many times, and it ties in very importantly to the issue of our identity in Christ, but there’s something else it alludes to that I had never noticed before this subject came on my radar.  It says we have not received a spirit that makes us a slave again to fear—which means we already were slaves to fear once.  Have you ever thought about who we were adopted from when we got adopted into God’s family?

Think about it.

In a natural family, there is a father and mother.  In fact, genetically and biologically speaking, for a child to be birthed there has to be a father involved somehow, as his DNA is required to produce a child.  In Vitro via sperm donor, natural intercourse, whatever—a father has to be involved in some manner.  Yet, the scriptures seem to make it clear that God was not necessarily our original father. After all, my biological dad didn’t adopt me in order for me to become part of my family.  If I had been adopted, then my biological dad would have had to have made me and then I would have been adopted into another family with a new father (to clarify, I’m not adopted).  But this is the language this passage uses.  It speaks quite plainly, here and elsewhere in scripture that we were not born naturally of our heavenly father, but have to be adopted into His family.  This means quite simply that we each have to have Other Fathers somewhere that are in some way responsible for our existence.  Kinda trippy, right?  And not only that, but that we weren’t just their children in some way, but according to Romans 8:15 we were also their slaves.  I mean, what are the implications of that??

Here are some of my questions and thoughts on the subject, and these you can take or leave as you see fit, but I want to offer a perspective to ponder before we continue on.  What if when the Bible says in Jeremiah 1 that “before you were formed in the womb I knew you” that it is speaking of a pre-existence before earth—what I call “pre-incarnation?”  What if we actually all existed as spiritual beings in the spiritual realms, chose with God to come down here, but on the way got waylaid and ended up in some cases in kingdoms of darkness in the spiritual realms where we ended up enslaved by Other Fathers?  What if this spiritual battle we are in didn’t just start with Adam on planet earth but has been going on for aeons of time and eternity throughout the spiritual spheres?  What if what we see and experience on this physical earth is only a vague fraction of all that has occurred throughout the myriads of ages, and that this spiritual battle is far vaster than we have any concept?  What if the only way to fix any of this was for Jesus to do what He did on the cross—and even when it says that He sets the captives free, what if he was talking about all the children of all the Other Fathers? And what if somehow that included some of us?

Regardless of whether those musings are true or not, there is one things that is certain.  We must become aware that the Other Fathers do exist, and realize that Jesus actually directly taught on this subject himself.  As a result of this knowledge that they do exist, we must divorce from them in any ways we are connected in to them, and then as we come across their influence in our lives or those around us, destroy that influence and set captives free.  In reality, this doesn’t always have to be a hard thing, but in some cases and situations it might require more targeted prayer, for which I will provide an example prayer one can pray down below.  However, I did promise to tie this in to other aspects of our lives before looking at what we can do about them.  I already did that to a certain degree, but let’s look at the identity-in-Christ issue and how this relates.

If Jesus is setting us free from the Other Fathers through our adoption as sons of our Father in Heaven, then it is as He said—whom He sets free is free indeed.  That just means that when Jesus sets us free we can trust that He has truly set us free, and that we won’t still be drawn back to the Other Fathers somehow later on.  It also means that we get to walk in, enjoy, and live out all of the things that it means to be sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.  That means we get to walk in all of the authority He has provided for us, enjoy all of the blessings He has held onto for us in spiritual places in Christ, and we get to freely access Him—our Heavenly Father Himself!

So many believers struggle with the idea that we can come freely before God the Father, and that He isn’t about to smite us with some sort of heavenly smiting.  Where does that fear even come from?  Sure, it comes in part from our earthly fathers at times, but I suggest it also comes from the Other Fathers. Zeus, among others, is well known for having a big temper and for being a bit free with the lightning bolts.  You don’t want to cross that one because he is mean.  When I was in India in November of 2018, I asked one of the pastors there why the people served Kali and some of the other evil Hindu gods since they knew they were cruel spirits, and he explained that they do it out of fear—bad things happen to them if they don’t, or if they do it wrong, and until Jesus comes along, they really don’t have any other choices anyway. But Christ did come along and has provided a way for all of us to break free from every ungodly spiritual influence, including but not limited to the Other Fathers, and has made a way for us to permanently join His family forever!  This is how this subject relates to our spirituality as a whole, and it is fantastic news!

The final thing I said I would do is look at what we can do about the Other Fathers.  First, we need to recognize that there actually are Other Fathers out there, and that there are still many in this world who serve them.  For those who haven’t figured it out yet, we are in a spiritual battle.  There are those in this world who actively serve the enemy, who regularly perform magic, ritual sacrifices, and more in order to help the enemy gain power and influence in this world.  The Other Fathers are part of an evil spiritual army that seek to enslave not just all of mankind, but all spiritual beings for all eternity.  They are part of the force who were cast out of Heaven (Rev 12:4), and have set themselves against God the Father, seeking to dethrone Him and rule in His place, as though that were even possible.  In an attempt to gain sufficient power to do this, they have to include mankind, whom God has made in His image and likeness, and engage our free will to help them.  Thus, we must be on guard against the Other Fathers as well as other human who are either deceived or who lust after power and are actively taking part on the enemy’s side right now.

Next, I want to remind us that faith is a powerful protection against the enemy, Other Fathers included.  Ephesians 6 tells us that faith serves as a shield, so if we want to be protected from any ungodly influence, the first thing we should do is engage our faith to believe freely on Jesus, that He has provided us with the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee we have dwelling inside of us that we are legitimately and truly adopted as children of our Heavenly Father—whom scripture calls the Father of Heavenly Lights in whom there is no twisting and turning of shadows (James 1:17).  By engaging our faith to agree with our identity in Christ, we can give ourselves a degree of protection from their influence, as well as any other negative spiritual influences in the earth.

Finally, we must pray.  This is both an ongoing and active thing, in that we must continually pray for God to destroy the designs of the enemy in both the heavens and the earth and to raise up Godly people to will and act according to His perfect will to transform the earth realm to be like it is in the Highest Heaven where God the Father abides.  We must act in accordance with our prayers, releasing both mercy and justice in the earth, and also train others to take part in this spiritual battle alongside us.  And, in some cases, especially where people have been ritually abused or co-opted or deceived by the enemy in other ways to become willing participants on his side, we have to specifically target the Other Fathers in prayer to break free from their power and influence.  I have provided an example prayer below that can be used to pray through breaking off the influence of Other Fathers:

 

Prayer To Divorce From The Other Fathers

“Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ I fully align myself with the new creation that I am in Christ Jesus.  I receive the free gift of your Holy Spirit, the spirit that testifies that I have already been adopted as your son/daughter and have become an heir of your Kingdom.  I break every agreement, oath, contract, ritual and document whether known or hidden that has placed me or any aspect of my God-created humanity as part of any other kingdom or as a child, servant, or slave of any of the Other Fathers that are not you, the One True God and Heavenly Father of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  I fully divorce myself from every Other Father and any other spirit beings that have laid any claim upon me, and I send the angelic host to break, shatter, and destroy any shackles, chains, or other bonds that would seek to prevent any aspect of my God-created humanity from coming fully under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and receiving the freedom of the Children of God.  I hand over every spiritual device, object, or other spiritual matter that in any way denotes my position, power, influence, or authority of kingdoms other than God the Father’s and I reject and renounce anything I have received in any way through my involvement, known or unknown, in those kingdoms and inheritances.  I decree that whom Jesus has set free is truly and completely free, and I receive that freedom in every aspect, level, layer, and area of my being in spirit, soul, and body throughout time and eternity.  I lay claim to all of the inheritance that has been laid up in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and receive it as a replacement for all ungodly inheritances that I may have received from those who do not serve the Most High God.  I receive all of this freedom, wholeness, and abundance in the name of the True Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  Amen.”

 

 

I have recently published a good all-purpose prayer to deal with freedom in the soul as well, which you can find here:

https://www.thekingsofeden.com/2022/02/a-general-prayer-for-freedom-in-the-realms-of-the-soul/

Bride Ministries (a ministry I recommend but which I am not part of) has two significantly longer prayers that can be used for similar results:

Freedom from Constellations

Freedom from Fallen Angel Bloodlines and Genetics

These prayers are very specific and were crafted to deal with a lot of spiritual realities that most people are unaware of, and often times are unaware of some of the things they are being influenced by.  Accompanying the prayers are lists of names that might apply and be worth praying to break off the influence of.  In many cases, these names will correspond with Other Fathers, which is why I reference the prayers here.  The best way to use those lists is to read through them slowly.  If any of the names feel like they jump off the page, feel more noticeable somehow, or cause some kind of emotional or physical response, then they should be included when praying to break off those influences.

If someone likes those two longer prayers, or wants help in knowing what kind of prayers to pray in a variety of life situations including general prayers, warfare prayer, prayers against witchcraft, and those for deliverance from evil spirits, you can get a copy Dan Duval’s two prayer books:

Prayers that Shake Heaven and Earth

Advanced Prayers that Shake Heaven and Earth

I own both and have found them useful in my own life journey, and hope that they, along with this teaching on the Other Fathers and the subsequent prayer, are helpful and freeing to you as well.  God bless you!

 

 

Warning Dreams Are Good Dreams

The night before last I had a strange dream in which I was talking to a woman who was showing me her garden. In this garden there was a lot of poison ivy growing, as well as some other plants—one of which she said sometimes is poison ivy in disguise. I don’t recall more details of the dream, but it struck me as strange that poison ivy would disguise itself as some other kind of plant that looks nothing like it. On waking, I had to go bury a dead goat before church as one of my stepdaughter’s goats died from a copper deficiency and they were unable to get more of the supplement in time to save it. We had prayed for its resurrection the two days prior and with no results, we decided it was time to bury it, which became my job.

I loaded the goat up in a wagon and pulled it toward the back of our property which is forested and we don’t currently use for anything (other than burying goats), and was getting ready to turn into this one clearing-area when I stopped—because I realized I was about to walk through a patch of poison ivy. Now, poison ivy by itself is really annoying because the oils on the plant create an immune cascade in the body that causes an inflammatory response (the rash and itching) long after you have already washed the oils off your skin. In my case though, the inflammatory response likes to compete inside my body for the title of “Longest Ongoing Ivy Inflammatory Response” so even a week after I was exposed my body will still be creating new rashes—even after it has covered a large portion of my body already. In other words, I get poison ivy really badly and learned decades ago to rapidly identify and avoid it. I just haven’t lived right by woods for a number of years and got out of the habit.

Well, this is where the dream comes in. While I am sure there is more to the dream message than I currently understand (such as paying attention to what we cultivate in the garden of our heart), if I hadn’t had that dream about poison ivy I don’t think I would have been quite as mentally keen on noticing the plant in real life, and probably would have identified it while standing in the middle of it (For those who don’t know, all dreams have messages—you have to learn to interpret them to gain the understanding and subsequent benefit of the dream). If I had to classify this dream, it would fall into the category of warning dreams—ones that have a message warning you about something, whether a current internal/emotional condition, an unsafe personal relationship, or some other potential calamity. Warning dreams don’t sound like good dreams at first glance, but that is a perspective issue. In truth, warning dreams are very good dreams because they make you aware of something so you can fix it. I recently had a warning dream where I was on a battlefield and my gun kept jamming. The warning in that dream was that if I don’t fix what is causing the gun to jam, I won’t be able to stop enemy attacks because my weapons will be ineffective. Again, the dream doesn’t sound good, but the message it carried is very good because it helped me identify something in my life that I need to change in order to prevent the outcome the dream tells me is possible.

Dreams can be messages from God, messages from our subconscious, or messages from the enemy. We can travel in the spirit at night and upon waking we think we had a dream but in actuality our spirit was somewhere else in the night (I talk more about this in my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit), and often God will give people spiritual encounters with angels, Jesus, and other saints while they are asleep. Ultimately, all dreams can be considered good dreams with the right internal perspective, but warning dreams in particular are extremely useful to help us make course corrections and keep us moving steadily forward on our life journey. And in this case, my warning dream helped me avoid weeks of health problems as well. And I thank God for that!!

 

 

The Solar System Model for Understanding Fragmentation and Dissociation

For those of you who have been following The Kings of Eden for a while, you know that I am a large proponent of inner healing and deliverance—largely because Christ died in part so we could be set free from all of the powers of hell and to live well and whole in spirit, soul, and body.  When discussing this, I believe it is important that people understand how we get wounded and what happens when we do, all in order to better understand how to heal those wounds and pursue wholeness.  Today, we are going to look at what I have named the “Solar System Model for Understanding Fragmentation and Dissociation” to better understand how we can heal the fractured portions of our souls and what happens inside as we go through this process.

If you are not familiar with fragmentation (something everyone has, not just those who have been clinically diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder) then you will probably benefit from reading my article called “An Introduction to Soul Fragmentation.”  For a better understanding of how fragmentation influences day to day life and the inner healing process, and how dissociation actually works in the day-to-day, listen to Dan Duval’s message “The Airplane Model of Dissociation.”  It does a very good job of explaining.  Now, down to business!

The Solar System Model of Fragmentation is something I have developed after going through some of my own inner healing process, as well as through some discussion with friends who are either going through similar things or who are helping others in their journey through healing soul fragmentation.  This model is designed to help the reader visualize and understand the different components of the soul, what wounding and degrees of wholeness look like, and can provide a useful visualization tool for those who are visually-oriented and/or operate in the seer aspect of prophetic gifts.  First, we will break down the components, then we will look at how they work in conjunction with one another and what this means for the inner healing journey.

Much like how our solar system consists of a primary sun, multiple planets in consistent and deliberate orbit around the sun and in concert with one another, moons and satellites that orbit those planets, and then other space debris such as comets, asteroids, and more, our soul can be described in much the same way.  If our primary or core aspect of our soul is displayed as the sun, then almost everything else—the other planets and moons, comets, and asteroids, represent other portions of our soul that have been broken into pieces through various emotional wounds and trauma throughout our lives and even in the womb.  The levels of complexity inside the human soul mirror the complexity in our solar system so no analogy is perfect, but the Solar System Model provides a strong base of understanding that can be adjusted as needed for the individual’s system.

In a person who has no soul fragmentation (Jesus, to my knowledge, being the only one who has ever done this) the solar system would be composed of a sun and *only* a sun, as there are no other broken-off parts.  The rest of us have a combination of planets and moons—parts that have reached some measure of healing and salvation and are walking in unity with the main personality, and comets and asteroids—parts that are still in conflict inside the system in some way.

Planets, of any size, can be likened to parts that have gotten healing and salvation in Christ, reaching a general measure of wholeness and possibly even some maturity.  The moons around them are other parts, often ones that broke off from that planet sometime in the past when some wound caused already-broken parts to fragment even further.  Their steady, regular orbit shows that while they have not reintegrated or reunited with the core, the sun, they no longer cause any conflict or problems inside the system and don’t tend to be targets for demonic attack.

Comets and asteroids, on the other hand, are the unhealed portions of the soul that are prone to demonic attack.  While they still move around the solar system, their movements are generally more chaotic and they are influenced more easily by other factors both inside and outside of the system.  These parts lack emotional healing and often also need a lot of help renewing their understanding.  Where the Bible tells us to “take every thought captive,” the negative thoughts that require this attention are usually generated from these portions of our soul who lack an understanding of things like identity in Christ, the finished work of the cross, and often have a lot of other unfruitful beliefs.

Why does this matter?  Half of the problem with fragmentation is the conflict inside the system.  When I first started doing this type of inner healing work, I thought that getting parts integrated (rejoining the broken pieces with the main core of the soul) was of primary importance.  I have come to learn that integration can be likened to the final 1% of an inner healing process, where the other 99% consists of healing wounded emotions, learning healthy mindsets and beliefs, and removing the demonic and other harmful spiritual influences.  What makes inner healing so difficult is that the sun and the planets, which are easier to access, don’t tend to have a lot of wounding.  Most of the wounding is carried on the parts zooming erratically around the solar system, making it more difficult to access the parts and thus harder to heal the wounds.  As different parts receive inner healing and freedom in Jesus, they move from a chaotic and irregular orbit into the ordered portion of the solar system.

As more inner healing occurs, the soul becomes more ordered and healthy with less chaos, randomness, and disorder.  The demonic like to attack the parts that are lacking in protection (the asteroids and comets) because they are easier to attack.  These parts often form agreements with the demonic (which for our understanding can be viewed as subconscious or unconscious agreements we have made) and are easily tricked by the enemy.  When these parts get brought into a stable orbit, which means more healing, greater safety in Christ, and often a greater ability to grow into maturity, they become less available to the enemy, which means fewer avenues for demonic attack.

For the individual, the outward experience of this will be fewer life events that carry emotional triggers, a greater ability to handle difficult emotions, and hard emotions will simply be less powerful as a whole.  One’s belief system will clarify itself as parts realign their beliefs with the truth, which means double-mindedness and unbelief (caused by these parts being unaligned with the core self, the asteroids in conflict with the sun) gradually work their way out of the consciousness as well.  All in all it means a person who is more whole inside with greater emotional resilience to handle all that life throws at them.

While the Solar System Model can go into more depth, it provides a basic understanding for what fragmentation looks like inside the individual.  As I continue to develop this model, I hope to be able to provide not just a more comprehensive understanding for how the broken and healing soul works, but to provide better resources as avenues to accelerate the inner healing process.  For those who are interested in learning more about this method of inner healing, you can pick up a copy of Broken To Whole, a book I coauthored that covers inner healing for the fragmented soul.  As I have developed this model after writing that book, it will not be in there, but in addition to other information, we do provide various exercises the individual can do to help jump-start their journey toward wholeness of the soul.  If you want some help in identifying and working with parts, as well as supporting the inner healing process, you might want to try Fragment Finder, a flower essence that helps resolve the buried emotional wounds which have caused the formation of soul splits or fragments.  For those who really want to dive into their healing journey, you can also buy the Broken To Whole Essence Kit, a package combination of five essence blends and a print copy of Broken To Whole.  If this material interests you, be sure to check out the other related blog links below, and sign up for my email list to get updates when new books, products, and events are released!  Blessings to you!

 

Ignorant No More: A Realistic View of Spiritual War

There is little I find more disheartening than when talking to people who should be mature believers but who are somehow still very much asleep to the spiritual realities around us. A recent conversation with a friend highlighted this to me. We were talking about some of the issues in the USA right now—the riots, media manipulation, child trafficking, rampant political corruption, and more. I mentioned that I expected some of these issues to worsen through and after the 2020 Presidential election due to many individuals who are pulling out all the stops to keep from being arrested and tried for treason, sedition, and other high crimes. My friend, who doesn’t like to deal with anything negative, said something like “Michael, can’t we pray and fix all of that? That’s such a hopeless view of things.” No, it’s a realistic view of things because, like it or not, we are in a spiritual war.

Anyone who has followed my blog for some time knows that I have pretty high expectations as far as the workings of God in our lives. Whether inner healing and deliverance, raising the dead, immortality, or spectacular miracles such as gemstones and feathers from heaven, oil, manna, and much more, I am constantly pushing forward to access all that God has prepared for us in Christ Jesus. And yet, it would be the height of foolishness and immaturity for me to ignore the spiritual war we are in, all in favor of focusing only on the positives. In fact, while I value Bethel for many of the good things they bring to the Body of Christ, that is one of their major weaknesses. They don’t like to deal with the demonic (nor teach people how to) because they, of their own admission, don’t want to “give glory” to demons by acknowledging their existence. Well, demons would like nothing more than for us to ignore them because they try pretty hard to remain hidden. Failing to train believers to cast out demons isn’t maturity. Ignoring negative-sounding things in favor of positive-sounding ones only goes so far before it causes problematic imbalances.

Let’s be honest. Do I enjoy knowing that human trafficking exists in this nation in part to provide human sacrifices for people who willingly serve Lucifer so that they and demons both can gain power in the earth? No—nothing about that is enjoyable, and it can be disheartening to know that most of the time there is little more I can do about it than pray. Yet, remaining ignorant doesn’t help those people, and it won’t save the next victim either. Ignoring the undeniable fact that we are in a spiritual battle only serves to tie my own hands and reduce my effectiveness in dealing with the enemy.

My buddy Steve reminded me once that in every interaction he has had with angels during any kind of demon encounter that they were always armed with swords. And the reason that angels carry swords is because they know they are in a war and are fighting an enemy. We have been given spiritual weapons to fight this same spiritual war, and yet sometimes we teach and/or are taught to lay those weapons down because we are too negative or focusing on things that aren’t nice to think about. We need to learn how to be awake to the designs of the enemy, fight the battles in front of us, and yet also fix our eyes on the prize. There is a reason that Jesus is the desire of the nations, but even as we pursue Him we need to remember that as Revelation 1:16 shows us, even Jesus has a sword.

This past December 10th I had to put my dog Rowan down. She was the first dog I had ever had as an adult, and while she was a bit anxious at times, she was a sweetheart. Any time I was doing inner healing and deliverance with someone she wanted to be in the room. And the reason we had to put her down? 100% due to witchcraft attacks on our family. In fact, a few weeks prior to that a witch spoke to me and told me they were going after her because they wanted me to suffer. Super thoughtful, right? Ultimately, Rowan started having tonic-clonic seizures that we couldn’t get under control, then post-ictal she started trying to attack us, and since we couldn’t predict when she would have them it became unsafe for her to be around the kids, so we put her down. It absolutely broke my heart, and the rest of the family was just as devastated. And all because we are in a spiritual war that has real enemies and real consequences.

Sure, we can pray for God to fix things, and believe me, from the time the witch threatened me I was praying over my dog and my family—and yet we still lost the battle. It must be nice to be one of those people who can delude themselves into believing that life with Jesus is all roses and bliss, but that’s not reality. The reality is that while in His presence there truly is fullness of joy, we are still in a spiritual war and we don’t win every battle.

For me, that fact simply spurs me on harder to mature and become all that I must become in Christ to be both a sword against our spiritual enemies and a shield in front of my family and friends, but not everyone responds to problems the same way. What would have happened if the prophet Daniel had decided that fasting until an answer came wasn’t worth it, or wasn’t needed because “finished works” theology told him that fasting isn’t needed any more? I rather doubt that Michael the Chief Prince and the angelic messenger in Daniel 10 would have been able to win against the Prince of Persia if Daniel had not dedicated himself to fasting and prayer during that time.

If we choose to remain asleep to the war then we are relegating ourselves to the sidelines and making ourselves of little effect, and more often than not when sidelined we will either be ignored by the enemy because we are so harmless or we will be attacked relentlessly and destroyed. And neither outcome is acceptable.

I’m not saying we need to become hyper-suspicious of everything around us, nor am I saying that we can never have fun. No, it is important that we learn to live from a place of inner rest, enjoying the goodness, love, joy, and peace of God, and yet from that internal position rise up to put a stop to the darkness that encroaches upon this world God has given us responsibility over. Yes, the elections are important. And yes, the corruption in our political sphere, the Covid-lockdowns, the riots, and much more all need to end. But all of those things need to be put in context of a spiritual war that has been waged for thousands of years (and possibly even for millennia).

Earth isn’t the only battlefield. There are spiritual battles that occur all the time in star systems in far off galaxies and in other dimensions. Our prayers actually have ripple effects through the multiverse and across dimensions into other realms and realities that shift the tide in favor of God’s people throughout all of time and eternity. Our prayers are powerful and accomplish far more than we realize, but it is time that we realign our perspective on reality. It is time that we mature enough that we can both remain idealistic about the plans that God has for us to bring us prosperity and goodness and yet also effectively fight and win against the powers of darkness that seek to stop the promises of God from ever coming to pass. I can’t pretend to know what that will look like for each individual, but we need to examine our hearts, be open to the Holy Spirit dealing with our immaturities, intentional ignorance, and our fears, and learn to stand strong against the evil one. For, as Ephesians 6:12-13 reminds us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

 

 

Why God Does Not Stop Evil

Some people struggle with understanding why God “lets” bad things happen. The “why didn’t God stop it” question has to do with a lack of understanding about sovereignty and God being in control. If God was “in control” like many say, then God is profoundly evil. It would mean that God intentionally causes rape, murder, and all kinds of perverse and wicked things in the earth. And even if we make the argument that God doesn’t personally perform them but “allows” others to perform them out of His infinite wisdom and grace, then God is basically a sadist, taking pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. But that’s not who God is, what He is like, or how any of this actually even works. God isn’t in control—or at least not remotely how people like to think. And this is actually the best explanation for why God does not stop evil.

The idea of sovereignty as is usually applied to God is that God is sovereign which means He is in control of everything in creation and thus whatever happens goes according to His will. This is inaccurate on multiple points. First, sovereignty has to do with being the highest authority over a domain—and that’s all it means. Note that I didn’t say “highest authority where everything goes his way”. I simply said “highest authority”. God as sovereign simply means that there is no one with a higher level of authority that God. But that doesn’t mean everything goes the way God wants it to.

We can look at earthly examples and see this is true of any sovereign. Kings and emperors are also sovereigns—the highest authority in their domain. If a king makes a decree and not everyone follows that decree, does that threaten the king’s sovereignty? Does it somehow make him less of a king because someone disobeyed the order? Of course not. Someone breaking the royal law doesn’t change the king’s rulership in any way—it simply means that if the king wants his rulership to have any value, he has to set up enforcers throughout his kingdom—those who enforce the rules the king has put in place.

We have only to look to the first three chapters of Genesis and we can see that God doesn’t always get His way in spite of the fact that He is Sovereign over everything in all creation. Adam and Eve disobeyed His instructions in the third chapter of Genesis, and mankind has been disobeying Him ever since, but that doesn’t mean that God’s rulership is threatened. In fact, not only is not threatened, but in Christ Jesus, God has appointed us who were once His enemies (Romans 5:10) as chosen enforcers of His Divine Will in the earth. God isn’t in control and things don’t always go His way, which is where we come in.

Did you know that the Bible tells us that it is largely up to us humans to decide what happens in the earth? Psalm 115:16 says, “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.” Again in Amos 3:7 it says, “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” God has chosen to partner with us to influence the earth realm, even to the point that God doesn’t do anything without our involvement in some manner. And this is an important fact to take note of.

God set up laws in the fabric of creation that govern how the multiverse works. God is just, in that those laws govern all creation, He follows His own laws, and those laws don’t care who you are–they are impartial in their function. For whatever reason God gave mankind authority over the earth, and this means that He is bound by that decision as well. If God wants to do things in the earth He has to involve us in some way, so when we think that God hs somehow “allowed” evil, what has in fact happened is that we have allowed evil.

This is a hard pill for some to swallow because it means that mankind, then, is generally responsible for the ills that befall us and not God. It is frustrating at times to be sure, as demons make use of spiritual laws that we are often ignorant of to cause affliction, torment, and ultimately death, loss, and destruction—yet even then, they typically do it with our involvement as well.

For example, if someone has unhealed emotions, then demons use those unhealed places to set up a stronghold inside the person, then they expand their dominion inside that individual. Demons utilize the law of sowing and reaping to attract evil to that person over time through the position of their stronghold, and it works because they are using, even if in a twisted way, spiritual laws to gain “legal” occupancy inside a person. When bad things happen and we perceive that God doesn’t stop it, it’s because demons have expanded the realm of their control inside that person which allows the demons to afflict that person in various ways and ultimately we not only haven’t stopped it, but have made room in our hearts for that evil to exist.

The demonic make great use of the authority of humans in the earth to cause pain and suffering, and they do it by influencing our free will. The Holy Spirit does similarly, influencing us to use our free will to bring life all around us, but He is kind and not manipulative, unlike the enemy. The Holy Spirit invites us into a partnership with Him whereby we can together release transformation into the lives and circumstances around us.

And while we can make the argument that God doesn’t stop evil because it’s our job to, we also need to recognize that God actually stops evil a LOT. We don’t have half of a clue of the many myriad things God has protected each one of us from, but the moment something does make it through, we tend to get upset and blame God for “not stopping” it. No, God gave dominion of the earth realm to us. If something makes it through, it’s our job to do something about it based on the authority He has given us instead of blaming Him for us not adequately taking dominion in our own lives.

This past December we had to put our dog Rowan down. There was a known spiritual component to the problems that led up to the end result, and the entire thing was very upsetting as a result—both because we loved (and still love) her, but also because the spiritual issues that surrounded her death screamed “the enemy won this battle”. While I normally never blame God for anything, I found my own heart tested on this subject, as I found myself thinking from time to time things like “God, why didn’t you stop this?” The truth is that I don’t believe that God is in control and I haven’t for years, but when circumstances come up, it tests what we actually believe and reveals hidden motives in our hearts. God didn’t kill my dog, and He certainly didn’t cause me and my family pain in order to teach me a lesson about persistent subconscious and unconscious beliefs. While God in His infinite goodness certainly works terrible situations like this for my good, He isn’t causing it, isn’t influencing it to happen, and isn’t responsible for it. Humans were responsible for partnering with the enemy to bring harm to my family, and my responsibility lay, at least to a degree, with failing to protect a member of my family.

I don’t say or share any of this to bring condemnation on anyone so if anyone is hearing that from this story I am sharing, that isn’t the point at all (and I don’t condemn myself for it either). I am trying to illustrate that when bad things happen to us, it isn’t because God is permitting evil, it isn’t because we are being tested like Job, and it isn’t because God is giving us a heavy burden to bear because He will only give us what we can handle. All of those are highly erroneous beliefs developed from a poor understanding of God’s nature, and they have no similarity to who God is or what He is actually like.

The Bible says in Proverbs 26:2 that a curse that has no cause cannot come to light, meaning that if there is no access in our lives that negative things cannot have power to influence us. The issue many people have isn’t that a curse is causeless—it’s that we don’t have a clue what the cause is, and assume there isn’t one when the cause is just well-hidden. Many times we don’t know that we have access points for the enemy and the enemy wants to keep it that way. God, however, reveals ways that we can destroy the access that the enemy has in our lives so He can bring us into increasing realms of true freedom. In this process, God also reveals to us the authority He has given us to destroy works of darkness (Luke 10:19) so that we can enforce His abundant life in the earth.

 

 

Filling Prayer Bowls – Accelerating Answered Prayer

In a previous article titled Frame It! Building a Vehicle For Answered Prayer we discussed how to frame up prayer using a model of golden bowls found in Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5, with a promise of more to come, discussing how prayer bowls get filled and how we can accelerate the process with spiritual laws and principles. In the same way that the natural world full of visible matter has natural laws that govern its function, the spiritual realm full of invisible spirit-matter has spiritual laws that do the same. Where natural laws include things like friction, drag, gravity, and thermodynamics, spiritual laws include things like sowing and reaping, focus, and agreement. When we understand how spiritual laws function, we can make strategic use of them to enhance the effectiveness of our prayers. Spiritual principles are similar to laws in that they influence how things function, but are not as specific and targeted as laws are. Alternately, to look at why prayers often go unanswered, you can read our article titled Understanding Spiritual Laws and Forces: The Paper Airplane Model. Before explaining how we can use spiritual laws and principles to do this, I want to clarify something. None of this is us earning God’s favor or earning the right to have our prayers answered. We have already been made fully righteous in Jesus Christ, and instead of trying to earn the right to get our prayers answered, the scriptures tell us that because of our position as sons and daughters of God we are to “boldly approach the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16).” We don’t pray from an earthly position of need, but from a heavenly position of birthright and authority, decreeing and legislating into the earth that which we already have access of in heaven. However, God also wants to bring us into maturity as sons and daughters which means learning how the spiritual realms work and the rules by which they operate. The good news is that doing so will help us to be more effective in manifesting heaven’s rule in the natural realm.

Spiritual Laws

The primary law that influences most of what happens in the earth is that of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7 tells us that what we sow or put out, we will reap or get back. Luke 6:37-38 speaks of a similar concept, saying, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Both of these verses show us that whatever we put out, and in the measure which we put it out, we will receive in like kind in return. In the natural that means if we plant corn seeds, we will grow corn plants. If we plant acorns, we will grow oak trees—and the law works the same way for things spiritual. What this means for answered prayer is that if we want to accelerate the speed at which we get things done, we can intentionally sow in order to intentionally reap. Using the idea of prayer bowls getting filled in prayer, that means we might choose to intercede for others who are dealing with the same things we are, knowing that as we sow on behalf of others, we will reap back the same for our own situation. You can read a little more about it in another article titled Is The Law of Attraction In The Bible?
The thing about using the law of sowing and reaping to accelerate answered prayer is that it isn’t necessarily a quick-fix. It is effective, but not always fast. Think about it—when someone plants a seed, it takes months for it to grow before it produces edible fruit. Sowing and reaping is effective, but it isn’t usually instantaneous. While there are situations and circumstances that can accelerate the “growth time”, as a whole using sowing and reaping to accelerate answered prayer works best in situations that are expected to either be long-term issues or recurring ones.
A second law we can use to accelerate the filling of prayer bowls is the Law of Agreement. Matthew 18:19 says, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” This verse explicitly states that when two people agree in prayer on something, God answers. Deuteronomy 32:30 expands on this principle, showing us that there is an exponential growth that occurs when we get multiple people involved in prayer. It says, “. . . “one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight . . . (Deuteronomy 32:30)” When people align in prayer there is something about that joining together that causes not just a basic acceleration but has a synergistic effect in the spirit that propels answered prayer forward.

Spiritual Principles

Spiritual laws are not the only things that help accelerate prayer. There are other principles and spiritual functions that do not fall under the category of laws that can also help us accelerate prayer. Some of the primary ones include engaging and including angels, addressing atmospheres and praying under an “open heaven”, and inner healing and deliverance.
Angels are messengers, helpers, and warriors and some of their functions include helping us do all that God has planned in advance for us to do. Psalm 103:20 says, “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” One of the functions of angels is to perform God’s word, and when we pray in alignment with God’s will and nature (considering Jesus *is* the Word made flesh), angels assist us. One means of accelerating prayer is to be intentional about involving angels. In fact, if we consider the prayer-bowl analogy, Revelation 8:3-5 even shows us that angels are actively involved in the process of answering prayer. In Daniel 10:12, an angel comes to Daniel and tells him that when Daniel first prayed to God, he was dispatched with the answer to the man’s prayer, which only further demonstrates this point. If we want to enhance the effectiveness of prayer, we would be wise to include our heavenly helpers (To learn more about how to partner with angels, enroll for free in our email list and you will receive a free e-book titled Engaging Angels).

Atmospheres are one of those subjects that it seems most are unaware of on a conscious level, but if we really think about it, we have all experienced the influence of an atmosphere. Have you ever walked into a room where two people were arguing? You can literally feel the tension in the air—a perfect example of a negative atmosphere. In the same way that we can both sense and create negative atmospheres, we can sense and create positive ones. A good way to do this is to literally verbally take authority over the atmosphere wherever you are and command it to shift in a way that is according to Heaven’s design, but spending time in worship or prayer are other ways to do this. The idea of praying under an “open heaven” is essentially derived from the idea that we can have a spiritual atmosphere that is highly conducive to prayer, angelic activity, and which restrains the function of the demonic. For a revelatory perspective on this, I highly recommend the article How Satan Stops Our Prayers: Combat In The Heavenly Realms by John Mulinde. Ultimately, whether one titles it something special like “open heaven” or not, the underlying point is that we can influence a time of prayer by addressing not just the spiritual forces of angels and demons during the time of prayer, but by setting up the spiritual conditions around us at the outset of that prayer time. By adjusting the spiritual atmosphere as we start to pray we can enhance the effectiveness of our prayer time and often can sense an active release in the spirit when the things we are praying for are being answered.

Inner healing and deliverance don’t really seem like the kind of thing that would help accelerate prayer, but Hebrews 12:1 gives us a key as to how they can help. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us . . . (Hebrews 12:1)“ Soul wounds and demonic baggage are perfect examples of things that hinder, and they also push people toward entangling sin. Going through inner healing and deliverance helps us throw them off, as the verse recommends, so we can run forward with perseverance. While this might not seem to help with prayer at first glance, demonic resistance hinders prayer, and inner wounds eat at our faith. By addressing both of these, we remove things that erode the effectiveness of our prayers, which in turn increases effectiveness.

 

Whether working with spiritual laws such as sowing and reaping or spiritual principles such as atmospheres and open heavens, we do not have to live at the mercy of our circumstances when it comes to prayer. We can take an active part in when and how our prayers get answered, and can use Godly wisdom to partner with heaven to see God’s Kingdom manifest on earth as it already exists in heaven.

 

 

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